The concept and design of mono-wheel vehicles has intrigued designers and engineers since the early 1860's. The concepts and designs have typically been full size vehicles for human transportation. Mono-wheel vehicles have one large wheel with a rider and engine (if any) inside its circumference. Mono-wheel vehicles depend on a gyroscopic effect to keep them upright. However, when mono-wheel vehicles are designed for human transportation, great care must be taken to ensure that the rider is stationary and does not move relative to the movement or momentum of the rotating wheel. To accomplish this, complex steering, stability, and components are needed which increases the cost of the devices to an extent that the general public is unable to enjoy the same.
One example of a remote controlled unmanned mono-wheel vehicle is the Gyrover II designed at Carnegie Mellon University. The Gyrover II is a highly complex robotic vehicle that uses an internal gyroscope nominally aligned with the wheel and spinning in the direction of forward motion to create stability. The Gyrover II's angular momentum produces lateral stability when the wheel is stopped or moving slowly. A tilt mechanism is used to tilt the internal gyroscope's axis about the fore/aft (roll) axis with respect to the wheel. Because the internal gyroscope acts as an inertial reference, the principal effect of the tilt action is to cause the wheel to steer in the direction of leaning. Torques generated by a drive motor react against the internal gyroscope, which hangs as pendulum from the wheel's axle. The torques produce thrust for accelerating and braking the Gyrover II.
As one can appreciate from the prior art, prior mono-wheeled vehicles are extremely complex and expensive machines. These vehicles are not practical for the enjoyment of the general public. To provide a mono-wheel vehicle suitable for the general public it must be durable, inexpensive, practical to manufacture, and capable of being operated by adults and children.
This invention solves the problems of stability and performance to provide a durable and efficient radio controlled mono-wheel with a simplistic design that is cost feasible for mainstream consumers.